Fairgrounds Square Mall | Dead Mall (Recently Abandoned) | ExLog 41
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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Hey guys! In this episode, we visit the now closed Fairgrounds Square Mall near Reading, Pennsylvania. This place was amazing, and had so much beautiful light streaming in from the clerestory windows. Come take a walk with me, and check out the infamous Boscov's Burger!
#DeadMall #SalGuido #ExLog
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That guy is like the terminator of mall walkers. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with. It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear...and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until this mall is dead.
Thats awesome
You just made my day. Also I wonder if the mall they used for the second Terminator is still open.
@@Blackwolffe097 You are so welcome! I wonder about that mall too.
😂😂😂
LOL
10:38 mallk-walking man
My boyfriend and I had our first movie date at Fairgrounds Square in 2002. He's now my husband - and living in PA seems like such a lifetime ago.
Going through your PA videos has been one heck of a walk down memory lane. There's a part of me that wonders how Berkshire Mall and others (Lehigh Valley, K of P) have fared in the digital age, but I'm not sure that I want to find out. If and when I'm curious enough, it will be your videos I look to for those answers.
Stay awesome. :)
What was the movie?
When did he kiss you?
When....
Was watching on the smart tv and had to come here to say that that intro music absolutely SLAPPED
Splended Sal! Your vids are the absolute hallmark of dead mall content 👌
Many of these smaller retail spaces would make great apartments and suites.
Actually the fair you saw was probably Muhlenberg Community Days. They would have it different places, sometimes there. I grew up in Muhlenberg and lived there until 2011 when I moved to Philadelphia and then Jersey. I don't remember ever seeing the mall this bad but it doesn't surprise me the only stores that even slightly survived were Bath and Body Works and that Comic Book store lol. Very bizarre to see this, I've heard they started demolishing it recently.
Excellent video tour, Huge Likes on this, We liked n Subbd your other channel also
ironically, malls dont have happy endings whenever massage parlors move in
lollll
Never really thought about it like that but you’re kinda right
😂
I get my best messsages at the mall
Sorry to be so off topic but does someone know of a way to get back into an Instagram account..?
I stupidly lost my login password. I would love any tricks you can give me!
Its haunting seeing a mall go from 95% occupancy to 5% to 0%.
It breaks my heart
@@sal we dont have to many dead malls in Canada. They are sparsely spread out and well maintained. We have one mall closure on Toronto and thats it. There isnt enough dead malls here to even think about starting a channel.
@@sal Maybe I should start a live mall series lol
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🦉🦉
@@katzfam1089 you are right. I'm from Ottawa, we still have 3 major malls that are still going strong. There aren't as many major malls here, as there are in the States. Probably why they don't go dead.
"Intense mall walker" That is the most polite term for a tweaker i've ever heard.
BDBD16 lol I just saw this comment
Maybe hes not a tweaker asshole,maybe hes mallwalking some people exercize you r probably a fatass.
@@robj8862 Planes often fly low for you?
I see him at the Berkshire Mall now!
That mall walker looks like he's just gonna walk right over top of you and keep on going if you get in his way.
Doomie Grunt - Dead Malls & Derelict Digs bruh it’s been so long since i laughed out loud at something i saw on the internet. top notch
Imagine what that Mall walker could accomplish if he put the same effort and determination into finding some employment , as he does Mall walking .
Great video! That mallwalker looks like that fake old guy in the 6 Flags commercials.. The Venga Boys are Coming...
Thought it was slenderman! 😥😨😱
I appreciate his dedication, I bet he would do well at Naruto running toward Area 51.
OMG he DOES!
Damnit now I have that song stuck in my head from that commercial
I've come to the conclusion, after watching alot of your videos, that these malls meet their end due to one basic thing.......greed. The developers are never happy with the original size. They get so greedy that they feel they have to expand.
"Mall Walkers" would be a good title for a scary movie.
Aren't they zombies that are trapped in a mall?
The main characters hide in an Amazon locker.
..rumor has it, he's *still* walking laps..
But in a different direction.
The antidote for Amazon package "Same Day" delivery poison is The Greenery at Boscovs. Iconic.
Nothing to do
The abandonment
Is all around
Lack of fulfillment
Wasted ground
Echoes of happiness
Were all to blasphemous
Sadly My heyday
Has just gone away
Empty halls
With Blistered walls
No more commerce
For our dead malls
My guess that they are even keeping most of the malls up is in hopes of selling them off to monopolies like amazon or off to some developer for the land to get turned into either a distribution center or overpriced housing.
I heard they want to convert the place in this video into an outdoor outlet, similar to the one near Philly.
That mall walker is the John Wick of mall walkers. A man of focus. Commitment. Sheer will. Something we know very little about.
the Adjudicator.......absolutely relentless
No dead mall is complete without a carnival. I found your videos after watching stranger things season 3 because of the starcourt mall which resparked my interest for “some reason” lol. Idk why but the 80s aesthetics and just the idea of our economy fueling such growth gives me this weird nostalgic feeling. Its like all the early malls are dying and just are husks of our culture, all from the same era, but then again most malls are from a particular growth boom. Its Just such an interesting but sad topic to think about, it’s all going to disappear due to amazon and our new sentiments. Almost makes me sick to think I haven’t stepped foot in a mall in YEARS. I loved your greenspoint mall video because I live in houston and watched all that unfold.
Edit: It’s the neon. Got to
be the neon.
That Boscov's restaurant is the shit! Takes me back to when the department stores all had dinettes and restaurants in them.
Part of its remediation if there older malls with asbestos etc and demolishing can be costly too
It was tragic when the race track was sold off. It has been said that security guards at the mall would sometimes hear the roar of the engines after hours.
Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing lost the Sears last year.....
5:15 MF looks determined AF.
My vote is for Pretzel Dogs. Buttery doughy goodness.
This mall opened when I was a kid. It was so big and modern and awe-inspiring in its day. By the early 2000s it was already in its decline.
Does it have a Russian experimenting base underneath it?
Im so hungry RN and dam I want that burger/sandwich
What? You can get Ibuprofen from Vending Machines? What World is this? O.o
The mall Walker is pretty much the crazy part of Reading in a nutshell lmao. Probably still walking as I type this.
I went to Alvernia University, and as I consider Reading, PA my home away from home, I couldn't agree more. Haha
I love the use of old commercials and vaporwave in your videos. It's so well done!
Never in a million years would I have thought this type of video to be of interest to me. Boy, was I wrong! Have a lot to catch up on. Thanks for enriching my viewing on YT!
Thanks for watching, Susan!
The Boscov's Restaurant looks amazing. It took me back to eating at the restaurants in Woolworth's, Sears, Woodward's, Hudsons Bay, etc. as a kid in the '80s. It seems they all had the kind of burger you can't get anywhere now. Thanks for more quality content Sal.
It's heartbreaking to hear of once thriving malls shutting down because of Internet sites taking over and ordering online is slot simpler than making a trip out to your favorite stores. When I was fresh out of high school I used to love going to the mall for meeting beautiful women and making a trip to music stores for CD's.
That burger looked great and a beer would have complimented it. It's good to see the mall walker. There's too many people in Walmart to walk like that. 👍😆
It's a snowy and cold Sunday afternoon. Where is a better place to spend some time than a bight and airy indoor mall? I miss them.
The long-defunct Seattle area department store chains Frederick & Nelson (liquidated in 1991) and The Bon Marche(bought up by Macy's in the late '90s/early 2000s) both had in-store restaurants similar to Boskov's Greenery as well as candy counters.
Many department stores in Canada had them as well, Zellers was the last to have them in the 2000's some right up until their acquisition by Target which bolloxed the whole operation.
Yes, the old store models have some of the best features!
Many department stores had lunch counters. There was one in the Woolworth's, one in the Times Square Stores where I grew up on Long Island, and I've seen the remnants of closed lunch counters in others. This video is the first time I've seen an entire food court walled off, however.
EDIT - oh, of course. They still have cafeteria in Ikea's.
in case no one else remembers phar-mor... think like a walgreens/cvs in size and products, but operates more like a costco, where you'd typically buy things in bulk/private labels. great concept and only failed because of massive embezzlement
mooglegiant yes I remember the phar-mor back in the mid 80’s, my mom got nearly everything there!
I remember phar-mor! Wondered what happened there! Used to get these Betty Crocker snack packs with a kool aid thing, fruit roll up n these awesome granola n chocolate cookie bit things.
The exit/entrance next to the movie theater for years, I'm talking till around 2009, there was a mural style advertisement for Mario Kart on Gamecube... just to give you non locals of how dated the mall became. It eventually got associated with gangs and such so crowds dwindled as well.
That’s incredible
I miss department store diners.....
Nordstrom's has them
Man that burger looks awesome. Boscov's is a rare department store in the USA these days. The charm of the store designs with the mirrors, neon, and fancy lighting is so much better than the bland boxes everywhere else. Great video Sal!
Sal, I love that boscovs. It is so vintage and that burger look really good. That vintage taco menu was cool too. I seen the mallwaker 9 times, but he looks kind of angry so be careful sal. Lol
It was a melt, that IS NOT a burger
Felt pretty burgerlike in my mouth
I used to work at the LLancasterBoscovs. They've since turned the greenery into their bargain area but I used to go to the greenery for my break many times a week. I was actually just thinking about this the other day and wondering if any were still open.
Its mind numbing to me a 2000 sq ft house in CA can cost over 1 million dollars, and they were able to buy a 725,000 square foot commercial structure with a ton of land for the same price....
The astronomical housing costs are just one piece of the puzzle as to why no one can afford to shop at the malls anymore.
well, not quite. $1 then is $3.36 now.
Sorry but the best way to eat a pretzel is either with beer cheese or cinnamon and sugar
Nope. Soft pretzel with hot fudge rock.
boscov restaurant..like zellers restaurant loll
This was the mall I grew up going to. Sooooo many memories in that mall!
if an adidas outlet were to open id never go
just kidding id go
The reason malls take forever to be dismantled
Gotta pay for it
Get a good estimate on how much steel is in the mall that they can rip out to sell to wholesaler for smelting
How much the land will be worth to sell once cleared
It’s all about how much money they can recover from the dismantling and selling off assets like electrical boxes light fixtures copper h vac units it’s a lengthy proses and company’s dont wanna pay people to do it
That mall walker looks like he used to fit that enormous shirt...that cat was MOVIN! I counted at least 10 maaaaaaybe 11 times? (I counted the reflection too LOL) But MAN did that burger sound good! I need to kick keto for a day JUST for that burger! LOL
Have you ever considered doing a joint dead mall review with Dan Bell?
Dave Wilson He was on Dan Bell’s Patreon podcast as a guest and spent part of the show talking dead malls.
If the review does happen, it’ll be awesome.
Went there last when Bath and Body Works closed. Took photos since I went there when I was younger a lot. I loved the neon when it was functional.
When I was a kid I would mostly go to the Cressona, Fairlane Village and Schuylkill Malls, but when I got to go to Fairgrounds Square and Berkshire Mall it was a real treat. I bought my first pair of Air Jordans there and the Taco Casa made me sick.
The Boscov's in the Moorestown Mall in NJ used to have this same style (minus The Greenery) until they "renovated" it last year to be a super bland and generic store. It too had the weird Auditorium turned liquidation center. I was so sad when I walked in and saw what they had done to it. Great video as always, Sal!
I am everyone, I am everything, I am everywhere - I am THE WALKER!
Great job documenting this mall. I enjoy your narration and history of the mall throughout the video, you pace it out well.
Boscov's makes any mall trip worthwhile. Even if the mall is closed & you can't get in.
Just drove past it ten minutes ago!
Oh lordy, that opening sponsor...
28:13 that guy's like HOLD UP
Love the animal dude Interlude, so cute, thanks. made the video
I thought it was closed. How did you get it in there ? That mall walker was in dan bells video too
Which video?
It was open to the public when I went, as evidence shows with the open businesses and walkers. It closed days after my visit.
Maybe that mall walker is eternally stuck in that mall, like a bad Twilight Zone episode.
You always find the coolest stuff! That vintage Boscovs as super cool. All those neon lights~Justin
Edit: I'm going to try to recreate the Boscovs burger for my cooking channel!
seeing that boscovs really unlocked some memories in my childhood
Glad I could do that for you! Make sure to sub and get ready for some awesome new content….
My Boscov's got rid of the candy counter a long time ago. This was a time warp. 88mph.
Some reasons it takes longer to demolish is asbestos and lead test and containment in older buildings. time to separate materials for salvage and proper disposal.
Shh..I won't say a word.
Loving the content so far; can't get enough dead malls.
Good job dad
Catch your shout out for research??? Thanks for the assist, son.
This mall walker also goes to the Berkshire Mall. Last time I was there I saw him walking very fast. I worked at this restaurant for a few months back in 89.
JCPenney five star Outlet was pretty much the same but it was JCPenney's leftover stock.
When I was a kid it was always a big deal to eat at the lunch counter in a store. I remember eating at Woolworth, K-Mart, and Emporium-Capwell. Back in the days before food courts.
I had that Boscovs burger when I stopped at the Fairlane Village Mall in Pottsville PA, and you are so right, soooo good. I wish every Boscovs had them
I can agree with your pretzel theory as long as I can discretionarily omit the mustard (ewww).
That's one of the ugliest burgers I've ever seen, so you KNOW it's gonna taste frickin' amazing. GIMME.
There are many reasons why malls fail. One reason is they became dangerous. Crime increased dramatically Petty theft/car break-ins/ simple assaults/gang violence etc. These things became very concerning to shoppers. It became an extra expense for the increase of security and also maintenance. All it takes is a major store to close. Then its a trickle down effect. I was brought up going to the mall. Now people are more into convenience.
I swear that mallwalker should have had a theme song playing as he walked along.
Also...12:20 that X-Men cartoon theme. XD
You mean Whitney Houston's "Im your Baby Tonight" Lol
That mall walker has "Gonna fly now" playing over & over in his head.
I thought the mall closed the inside in 2018. I wasn't aware it was still open to the public.
The dead interior portion of this mall is now being torn down after a Covid-related delay of a few months. Soon, the large anchors will be all that's left (Boscov's, Burlington Coat, AMC Theatres, Super Shoes, Planet Fitness). The empty area is planned to be a mix of green space and possible new construction of free-standing stores/restaurants. One thing Hull Property really needs to do is repave the parking lot, but I doubt if they will.
This is what’s missing from my life; department store restaurants. Our 1972 original JCPenny had one years ago; the store is still open but the restaurant is long gone. My grandfather used to take me to the lunch counter in Woolworth’s too.
As a mall child of the 80s I really enjoyed the boscovs segment. The neon, mirror everything, took me back to my teenage years. Brilliant. I believe these documentaries are recording a life style that in the very near future will have disappeared. It’s very cool work you are doing
I remember my mom taking my shopping for my clothes on the girls’ section with the same neon signs. Then I remember my sister taking my niece there for clothes when she was a kid. And I’ve bought my daughters stuff there. Those neon signs and the ceiling mirrors are burned into my memory.
Has to be brown deli mustard. When in doubt always go for the brown deli mustard!
I've noticed most of these malls you visit don't have automatic entry doors. I can't remember ever seeing manual entry doors around my way in Australia and I'm 48 years old.
I think one big contributor for the demise of the indoor shopping mall is the ease of online transactions without having to leave your home. As a teenager in the 90s, going to the mall seemed like a real treat, since some of the stores present there you couldn't visit anywhere else. Another major drawing point for me was also the arcade, which met a decline due to advancements in high definition TVs and more complex gaming systems. I could see a possible resurgence of malls if they devised a formula to provide services that were not found elsewhere so easily. This could prove challenging in our recent times.
The Fairground Mall pushed out one of the greatest Half mile dirt tracks ever. Many big names in racing visited the Fairgrounds. Many fans of the race track hated that Mall. Good riddance to the Fairgrounds Mall. Greed never wins, long Live the Reading Stock Car Association and it's memories.
Im 32 now. This mall popping when i was 15-19 years. Shame what happened .
Just found your channel and have been working my way thru your awesome videos! Your commentary is really informative and well constructed....plus your voice is really soothing!
Thank you! Working on the next episode at the moment, stay tuned :)
Beautiful mall. Perhaps it could be used as a form of housing. Each store could be transformed into studio apartments or some type of housing for the homeless.
that burger looks similar to what we have in Australia, known as a Steak Sandwich. Which is a thin piece of steak instead of a burger patty but otherwise looks pretty similar to this meal. They're available over here at almost every Pub / Bar
Demolitions have to be paid for. They are dangerous, dirty jobs. Ordinarily you'd leverage the cost of an operation against the value of the mall, but the mall won't exist when you're done. The only thing you could borrow against would be the value of the land the mall sat on, which is probably heavily contaminated and need all kinds of environmental remediation, and encumbered with tax liens all over the place. Depending on the building there are probably environmental hazard abatements needed, like dealing with asbestos or benzene. Generally speaking if I'm going to knock down a building to put up a newer and more profitable one, like the Amazon plant that replaced Randall Park, I'm going to have some tax credits and municipal support for the operation. (Unless an idiot like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez who has no idea what a tax credit is blows the deal or it gets NIMBY'd to death.) Plus you need the equipment, workers, insurance, hauling, and landfill use to deal with the mall; assuming it hasn't been torn to hell like Rolling Acres, you're going to want a scrapping team to salvage steel, aluminum, copper, durable parts or whatever else out of there. Even concrete is recycled nowadays. Lastly, demolition is incredibly noisy and disruptive work, so you're probably not going to be doing it at night or on weekends or holidays. The Rolling Acres demolition kept some of that, along with gawkers, at bay by working from the inside out, and that probably slowed down that process since it's harder to move debris away if there's a 30-foot wall in your way.
I'm not going to try to change your mind, per se...just offer an alternative opinion: in the days of the Hills snack bar, having that pretzel with a Coke Icee was amazing!!!!
Omg coke Icee!!! I love this.
Coke icee the size of a boat :)
Now I'm hungry,,,
The Greenery almost looks like a David Lynch movie man!
I'd like a few of those wooden benches!
It's amazing to see how far the US dollar has dropped
I'm from the UK so I'm not overly familiar with American retail but watching these video's I know that if you have a Bath and Body Works trading in your local mall then then closure of the mall appears to be imminent!
I think it's more that there's a bath and body works in seemingly every mall in existence and since their space is very recognizable, it seems like a tell. Ironically, the few dead malls I've been to, the B&BW had already closed or never been there.
What you are eating is a patty melt and they can be bought almost anywhere. Steak & Shake has great ones.
How can you have only 30K subs? Great narrative and so on. Thanks for all the good work!
Thanks Lars! Make sure to share my work over social media to get the word out!
Sal and Nightwing at it again. Hope you're doing well over there brother.
this mall was actually built on the property of a former half mile dirt race track. the track closed in 1979.
The cost of tearing it down is more expensive then doing nothing .
intense mall walker!😂
Thanks Sal for another sad but great failing mall video! Honestly I think the crazy mall walker guy is jacked up on meth harping back on his innocent childhood trying to find the old Sam Goody he loved so much. But yeah sadly, politics and business is why the mall’s future stands where it’s at. At least the local politicians are in the right for a change. That’s rarely seen! But dear lord I miss department store diners! If they were still around I’d eat there more often than fast food or chain store restaurant.
The burger was absolutely amazing!!!